


Alone

by Clea2011



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Immortal Merlin (Merlin), Immortality, M/M, Misery, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22088710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/pseuds/Clea2011
Summary: As Merlin waits, the world passes him by.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58
Collections: Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 10





	Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a very short, very miserable fill for hc bingo square 'Ostracised from society'.

2019.

It hadn’t been a great year and Merlin wasn’t sorry to see the back of it. There had been far worse years, and there would be again. Sometimes things had been so bad that he’d thought that perhaps Albion’s need was greatest and Arthur would return at last. But it seemed that was not to be the case. The worst was still yet to come.

Years, decades, centuries even had rolled past. Sometimes it seemed that they came and went in the blink of an eye. Sometimes they seemed to linger on for an eternity. 

Things moved faster now. Everything was faster. Inventions came along and just as fast became obsolete. Merlin struggled to keep up.

If Arthur did return, Merlin wondered what he would make of it all? Sorcery, no doubt. Unless he was reborn and grew up with it. In which case he would not know Merlin.

Neither scenario was a good one as far as Merlin was concerned. A new Arthur would not be his beloved king, his dearest friend. Whilst the original Arthur would be even more confused than Merlin himself was.

He lived out in the middle of nowhere, because that was easier to bear. Less risk of saying the wrong thing, sounding like the man out of time that he was. And when he did venture out into town he would use the old Dragoon disguise so that nobody bothered him. That was the thing about growing older, you were less interesting, less noticeable. When you didn’t understand the words that people were using, they just assumed it was your age.

Well, in Merlin’s case it was. He was one thousand, two hundred and ninety-six. Or thereabouts. He wasn’t quite sure. They hadn’t really used calendars as such back in Ealdor.

Ealdor was buried under an industrial estate now. Or it was last time he’d looked. Friends, long since turned to dust, would be under there too. Not his mother, she was under the lake with Arthur. All those precious to Merlin were.

The lake was still there, to those who could see. That was Merlin, alone. Modern society had moved on and magic barely existed any more. Just one small corner of the world still held it, and that was where Merlin lived.

He walked into the village to buy supplies. A few people stared, suspicious of the old man who lived out by himself and never spoke to them. He paid for his shopping with one of the new plastic cards that the bank sent him every now and then. They kept changing things. Always moving forward, never looking back. His trusty cheque book (another new invention, once) was a thing of the past. Now he didn’t even have to remember the pesky code that went with the card any more. 

Sorcery, Uther would have said, and tried to burn everyone at the stake. Merlin smiled to himself at the thought because people would think Uther was insane and lock him up. Best place for him really.

Merlin picked up his shopping and left. Nobody spoke to him. The door slid open as he approached. More sorcery.

He wondered what Arthur would make of it all.

Sometimes he wondered whether he would ever find out.


End file.
